Mid-week adventure

OK, so maybe "adventure" is too elaborate a term for what we did yester-evening, but it was something different for us on a weeknight. We usually always stay in and only head out on Fridays/weekends, but because I was on solo-parenting duty yesterday, I thought it'd be a nice way to pass time by heading out for dinner at the nearby mall.

Best sight! That's K running towards me when she spotted me waiting for her at the top of the ramp. Aawwww....

Dinner was quite uneventful for us, I mean, standard amount of food landed on the table/floor and some in the kids' tummies, and it wasn't a cheap affair, but it really was quite refreshing to be out. 

We witnessed an accident at the food court - someone spilt some hot soup on a kid - I don't know who did what, but I heard a crash, a scream and when I looked up, I saw a hot pot (the mini wok noodle pot) tipped over and my heart sank. The Mom quickly dragged the girl to a nearby sink to use water to cool her; after (long) wails, the girl seemed fine after. It was a heartbreaking moment and I was really worried whether the girl was more seriously injured. She seemed fine so thank goodness!

Reminder to self - be very careful with hot food!

Post-dinner entertainment - kiddy rides

Jake with his friend, Paddington, off on a car ride to nowhere

Kate, with her sleepy friend, Garfield. I was berated by my siblings for allowing K to wear a tiara out. First, I didn't dress her. Though I do concede that I allowed her to wear it when she wanted to while we were out. 

After kiddy rides, we headed to get some breakfast food, and because Jake requested, we took the bus home.

To end off this, just for fun, can you see the lipstain on Jake's cheeks? Hee hee. 

Hand painting fun

Look at how happy Jake is. Green and red colours - feels like Christmas already

A rare picture of me with the kids. Because the husband was home yesterday. I love it when he is. 

Shape Fun Run with Jake

After much delay due to poor weather conditions before, the Shape Run finally took place last Sunday. I was stressing about the run prior, because Jake had been unwell the week before and I was worried that he wouldn't be well by race day. But his fever abated four days before, and he slept pretty well the night before and on race day, I awoke before the sun came up. It's not very often that I get to spend alone time with my secondborn, and I was so thankful that he felt better so that we can do this together. 

After packing everything that we needed, I woke up a very grumpy baby and off we went! After my past training with the little man, I was looking forward to the event and catching up with other fellow mommies. 

When I finally located our meeting point, everyone was in high spirits already!

Team Capella - all geared up for the run in our strollers. Bright and cheery at 715am!

One with my little passenger - the bib on the pram read Jake Seah. His very first race!

And a close-up of him in his customised Capella hat #socute #biasedmom

That's Sally (and Paul) and Shermeen (and Jonas), my ex schoolmates with our minis

Start point - I think the organisers did a smart move by distributing pretty balloons to everyone - it sure made the mood happier and a lot prettier too!

And that's me with my boy - who by this time (745am) needed his fuel. Look at how comfortable he is in his ride #likeaboss (Photo credit Capella Strollers Singapore)

The run is a "fun segment" so it was not competitive at all, and it was indeed fun standing amidst fellow moms who were all excited to partake in the event with our offsprings. I must put this on record that the energy levels among my fellow blogger-moms were truly commendable! Very high! And really, that's what it was all about - to have fun, have some laughs and have a great time while enjoying Vitamin D. 

I started out strolling initially, then decided that I wanted to break out into a sweat and off we went. It was a very easy route, all straight, and I know Jake enjoyed himself. Who wouldn't, with a plush comfy ride?

Photo credit: http://amazinglystill.com 

That's us, having just crossed the finish line! (Photo credit: Capella Strollers Singapore) 

The run was pretty fun and over pretty quickly. It was a breeze pushing Jake along because he was enjoying himself (that really helped!) and the pram was easy to wheel along too.

A finish-shot with fellow blogger-moms Cherie and Chermaine, each with our bubbas and the rainbow-coloured range of Capella strollers

Jake, a thorn among the pretty roses

I just love this shot because it shows how happy Jake is. He obviously enjoyed himself! And again, look at how beautifully colourful all the prams looked lined up! Love it! (Photo credit: Lynn Lee)

The pram, after several months since I first picked it up had been (*ah hem* only a little) manhandled by us as we pile it with (a lot of) barang, and both kids always want to be wheeled about in it, served us very well. Not just during this run, but throughout this entire time.

The whole event was over in a jiffy and everyone was in high spirits. We all dispersed soon after to escape the heat of the sun. It was a healthy, enjoyable morning and we all had such good fun!

Now, to consider engaging my kids more on these runs! Why not, since I already do them? Hmm....

Disclaimer: TaiMe Pte Ltd  has kindly sponsored a Capella S230T for me to trial. No monetary compensation was given. All opinions are on my own.

Halloween party - Happy Boo Day!

After all the preparations we did leading up to this day, it was quite exciting to start placing up the decorations.

Bat. Pumpkin. Bat. Pumpkin. 

I cracked my head on a centrepiece and finally, after some thought, decided on a spiderweb!

(Top) Toobsie and Tubsie, Kate's pet spiders. (Below) Random deco put by Kate. An amusing thing was that all our deco was at waist level - because I gave K full responsibility where/how to place the deco up! 

My spiderweb centrepiece! *proud

Managed to draw some scars on Jake

Here's (grumpy) Snow White, with her two henchmen

The husband styled Jake's hair and I call this Mad Scientist/Wolverine

A gorgeous shot of the kids - a cat, princess, he-devil and fairy-devil

A pic too-cute not to be shared - JAKULA RAWRRRR

Even monsters and devils need to eat

Post-dinner activity - craft. We did spiders, and puppets

Happy Halloween! 

Virus, bugs, getting fit, running

A bit of a clumsy title but that's exactly what's going through my head. Random. 

It's been an emotional time with K acting up. She's a baby that's experiencing serious separation anxiety and it's drawing a lot out of me. 

The past two weeks have been trying too, with the family being attacked by virus and like a merry-go-round that is sure to spin around, we are taking turns to feel ill. High fevers, cough, phlegm, sniffles - the full works. With both kids better, it's now my turn to be hit. 

Whoop. Dee. Doo. 

But life goes on, and we keep running. Sunday morning, I'll be bringing Jake on the Shape Fun Run. It's been postponed for so long that the initial excitement has died down. Nevertheless, I hope the weather is good, my bug will be gone & we will have some fun. 

Gotta keep going. 

Halloween - prelude part III

Just to put things into context, we don't really celebrate Halloween. But it's quite an impromptu decision to create a party for the kids to play, and the adults to meet. So, why not? And that is why it's given my time with Kate in the evenings some purpose - we do craft sometimes anyway and this week, we have an objective - to create suitable decoration for our Halloween party! So after settling Kate's costume, and a first round of deco, last night, we attempted something new.

I cut a towel paper roll into two. And we painted it black. 

Then we took out colourful straws we had at home and trimmed them to size. 

Can you guess what we made? 

Kate's "scary face" with our spiders!

It was a rather simple exercise, and we made do with existing materials at home! I had initially wanted to poke holes and stick the "legs" in, but it was a bit too much work and after asking the husband for his opinion (OMG he was involved! *sarcasm much), he did give a pretty good idea of stapling the legs on. It doesn't look great from the back though, but it works for me. 

We then took old materials from other craft projects previously and stuck on eyes, noses and mouths for our spiders. 

Kate's named them Toobsie and Tubsie!

Happy birthday, my dearest little sister

Her favourite best friend and I took time out one evening last week (before her scheduled birthday party) to do personalised birthday cards from us. 

This is us, hard at work. Just for the record, mine had painting ok. 

And so, I was thinking how to start this dedicated post to my favourite little sister... and the natural start point was to sieve through my photo album.

We share many similar interests and fun times together. 

Then I decided that it was too boring to do it the nice way. 

So here are just random things about my sister. Who turns two-six today. 

So, just for the record, my sister loves floral prints. Can you tell?

And then because we have proof, I must say that we love to jump. 

Not one, not two, but three spots all about Western Australia! Not bad what. All different poses somemore.

And to end off, as if it wasn't already clear enough, we love to be silly.

Where on earth will you find someone who will be as alike as you? Ah-hem. Me. 

So. To end off. This simple post. Is not mushy. Is not long. But is from the heart. Because you already know how much I love you. And because you already know that we are all here for you. And just because. For nothing, for something, for anything. We are all here for you. 

Have a lovely day, my sister. Their favourite yiyi (see birthday-song video). The stonehedge BIL (sorry, lack of inspiration for an appropriate meh adjective for him).

Happy birthday and may you have a lovely year ahead. Better than before. Grow up wisely, save more money, and let's go on more holidays together!!

*throws confetti

Halloween - prelude part II

Taking the opportunity to craft, Halloween party preps in progress! Tonight, we did some pumpkin. I cracked my head thinking how to have sufficient orange colour (markers/colour pencil etc)... but then I had a eureka moment and remembered that we had orange construction paper! Woot!

I drew the outline of the pumpkin (mostly so I could maximise the size of the whole sheet of paper). Kate did the eyes, nose, mouth and stripes all on her own. 

She then cut the pumpkin out on her own. This is her face when she accidentally cut off the stem at the top - oops.

It was a good error because I then cut out green stems that looked better because the colour green didn't colour well against orange anyway. I helped to darken the face just so it'd pop more. But otherwise, these pumpkins were created by K! So proud of her. 

If you're interested, check out what she'd be dressed as at the party here.

Always a reason to have a party - the printz partae

So  my sister turns 26 tomorrow. And to celebrate ageing, she decided to throw a small party.

Here's the husband with his gear - cues Hawaii string music; and his choice of drink is so apt it cracked me up! (Coconut juice. Hahaha)

The afternoon was about drinks and games, and it was pretty fun really. We should just do this because. And it was all in the spirit of fun anyhow. Pictionary, Jenga, Taboo. 

But my highlight, really, was the photowall! Not sure about anyone else but I loved it. Loved the fact that there were dispensable props for me to use and a backdrop for me to stand against. It was so fun! And the memories you capture totally make it memorable!

The little kids at the party

Jake, and Kate

The husband and I

And that's me, having fun! 

The sister put in effort to make the party a party - balloons, little customised bits, it all made a party, a good party.

Family. Love. Jean turns 26.

Saturday. A different kinda date night.

The kids are sick. I've mentioned before that they have been on/off the past two weeks since our return from Japan, but right now, it's getting extremely tiring. And truly, it's one helluva super-f-bug. 

After nights of cold baths, loss of appetite, extremely-childlike behaviour, Kate's (hopefully) at the end of her sick cycle. She sounds like a frog now. A sicky-girly-whiney-frog. 

Jake, on the other hand has just started the bug and he's at the start of the horrid cycle. This means high temperatures, nightly showers and his bug seems stronger than Kate's and while Kate's only just started to cough, Jake's cough is bad and he's done vomitting last night. He also sounds like a frog - who's losing his voice *inserts sad and poor thing music 

This entry is not about them, so let me stop right here about the sickie kids. This entry really is about the break that the husband and I got on Saturday night. *channels nice jazz music to cue right mood to write about our date

SO. After a rather exhausting start to the day, I managed to regain some sanity after a one-hour nap. Lack of sleep really mucks your body about. My run that morning (my first trail run in ages) was soooo bad because my body was just so tired. But I digress. After the nap, and packing the kids off to nainai's for dinner (thank you Mommy for babysitting) I washed up… and made myself a non-candidate for too-early-for-Halloween-kinda scary face. It was a nice hour that the husband and I were just preparing. We didn't speak to each other, just walked about the house comfortably doing our thing. The music was blasting, the house was quiet, we were free to attend to ourselves with no distractions or accidents (water spillage, some boy attempting to climb some dangerous ledge, some girl asking us for this/that, kids fighting…) And it was nice.

We both stepped out of the house with no dirty marks on our bodies. And we smelt nice. 

We headed to a friend's wedding. We didn't manage to stay for dinner, but we did have a decent time catching up with some old friends that we do not see often. After about two hours, we headed to part two of the night. What struck me during the night (as we were driving from one venue to the other) was how quiet it was without the kids. How we can talk about anything/nothing. And it didn't matter. We didn't have to shout. We could talk about what we wanted to. And I could just hear quiet. Ahh, it sounded good. 

So anyhow, the second part of the night was quite interesting. It was an appreciation dinner that was organised by the husband's trainees at work and I entered a room full of testosterone. It was really interesting. 

Some observations of the night.

• How men show their feelings – it was, interesting. It came out slightly cumbersome, slightly awkward, but for those who managed to spit it out, it was very sweet. 
• The jokes men make about one another – it was endearing. And as whatever it sounds, I appreciate it because, well, I'd like to think that I get these jokes and the bond because I used to be from the NCC (ok you can stop laughing now)
• The husband at work – the husband is really a man of few words. But the few times I have seen him centre stage, he's been pretty impressive. People listen to him. And that night, he took to the stage on a few occasions. And every time he stepped up, I look at him and gush a little. Because we've been through so much, I felt like I loved him all over again. 
• All boys go through NS to toughen them up and I hope that one day, Jake will encounter some good men that will lead him well. The respect that the husband draws is not something that can be mimicked, unless from the heart. To know that he's taught them this well, to have made some impact in their lives for those few months, touches me. 

A few good men

The night ended early-ish. We'd grand plans of heading out for more drinks but we were just too tired. And just as well. The moment we got home, we had to start parental duties by giving Jake a cold bath cos his temperature had crossed over 39. 

And our lives go on. 

Halloween - prelude

Someone's ready for the Halloween party next week! 

Japan, final day. Back to Singapore.

We awoke really early again on this day. Our flight was at 11am and we needed to catch the bus from Shinjuku bus station to Narita Airport. It was a bit of a task because Kate was still unwell and had done a fair bit of vomitting the night before, Jake was still a borderline diarrhea case... and after checking out, ensuring that Kate had some porridge in her empty tummy, securing two cabs that brought us to the bus station, we were in time for the second-last Airport Limousine Bus. It was pretty hectic and to catch that second-last bus was a relief. (No contingency if we missed the bus. Probably go broke taking a cab TWO cabs to Narita!)

My Japanese-looking kawai boy - puffy eyes, but dressed to work it. 

Us on the hour+ ride to Narita. He was a monster on the entire ride! He was tired but couldn't go down and kept fussing and crying and crying... it was trying for him and everyone on-board. I was one of those parents who could not control my kid *sad face

Upon arrival at Narita, we checked in (you know, this sounds so easy but really it wasn't as easy as it sounded. Not with a ton of luggages, insufficient sleep, two cranky and sick kids - zomg), grabbed a quick meal, bought some last minute goodies from duty free and headed for our flight.

EH-PANE! 

Gangway to claustrophobia 

Sick K - but still such a sweetheart. The experience of being on a plane excited her enough that she was distracted enough to consume a bit of food, watch kiddy TV (she managed Hi5 & Dora) and snooze.

Jake was quite a handful because he was so tired and he fell asleep quite quickly after take-off. The flight back was more manageable - I remember because I managed to watch a movie! 

Wasn't too long that we landed and Kate was attracted by some colouring activity display; so the mother and I took the opportunity to do some last-minute duty-free shopping (again). 

Father-daughter bonding

After grabbing some alcohol from duty-free, we headed home. The air was warm and murky after cool and chilly Japan. We were truly home.

Some final thoughts about our holiday,

• I'm so thankful for the opportunity to travel with my family. To expose the kids to new things, to Disneyland - I'm sure Kate will remember this for ages. & Jake now has a new friend Kiki Maus (Mickey Mouse).
• I'm glad to have the husband around during the holiday. While we may not have had too much time to relax together, the little window opportunities were exceptional (date night in Shinjuku! Rare experience at Tsukiji!); plus before the holiday, he had been sooooo busy with his life that we had barely had time to be with each other. 
• I'm most thankful that I had the opportunity to travel with my Mother. When we were kids, my parents were very generous to bring us on many holidays. They really made an impression on me because I remember the fun times with the family.  It was always such a treat to go to Disneyland, or anywhere for that matter; as a family, we'd done our fair share of travels to USA, Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand – my siblings and I are very fortunate. Of course, all I did was enjoy then (such fortunate kids we were!) and today, I really understand the true impact (financial/physical/emotional) of planning a holiday with kids and I'm so grateful my parents pampered us so much before. 
• I know the Mother probably didn't enjoy herself as relaxed as she possibly could, because we were tied to the kids and their needs; but I felt happy bringing her on a holiday and truly, the time spent is something so invaluable, I hope she did enjoy herself in some ways too.
• It was so cute watching the kids enjoy themselves. The fact that I was with them 24/7 made it very tiring, for sure, but also nice. I guess there's a level of expectation set that with kids, it would be about them. So on one hand, while I wished I could eat more, shop more, sleep more, do more – it was also fun & endearing watching them have a good time.  
• To witness what a big and independent girl Kate is – while she can act very needy (not wanting to do anything because she's lazy), it's also amazing watching her express her views. Like when she picked her own souvenir at Disney, or when she was living her dream when she put on the princess dress!
• To watch Jake in his growth spurt (gawd, I swear he talked a lot more over the days in Japan – which may be true. Cos he was with us all day and we were talking to one another/him non-stop so he could be absorbing it all) and watch his antics. And his amazement at Mickey is also more endearing because it is all REALLY new to him. 
• When I'm back to my daily grind, walking along the roads of Singapore, I thought back to the cool winds in Japan when we were walking along Shinjuku. I missed being with the kids, and the husband and the mom doing nothing much at all all day. Not having any agenda, just going here or there or anywhere. 
• Through my time writing these entries, reliving the holiday in my head, going through the pictures, it was rather fun after all.